Topics - Matthew_Baker

The title says it. I want to know what conquest map has the best gameplay in your opinion. What map seems both fun and balanced. It'd be good if you could also say why. I gave 3 votes per person 'cause I just want to see what most people think.

For me;1) Totalize

To me it's the epitome of good BF gameplay. You can go inf, tank or plane almost whenever you want. Infantry gameplay is fun because you can still run between flags without running for too long and there's not really any circle capping. You can also hide and get fun tank kills with a bit of skill and patience.

Tank gameplay is fun because it's not too close quarters and you can be patient without being in constant fear of infantry AT. There's a good amount of paths to flank other tanks that might be covering one route or another, and if you can't flank the arty or planes can help move them away.

I don't play with planes much but the view distance is the best BF2 can do to give you good dogfighting. The planes can also play a major role in helping the team.

Whenever this map comes up I know I can find a way to have a good time on it and the winner is determined by the best team, not the map.

2) Meuse River

Great infantry gameplay makes this map one of the best. The town/ valley really offers the best inf gameplay imo. The wooded areas on the hills make for great tank hunting and sniping.

Tanking is fun but can be daunting. There's a real chance to death by inf AT so you can't stay in one place for too long.

Late war weapons make it extra fun.

The planes on this map almost don't exist

3) Eppledorf

Just good ol fashined conquest gameplay, this is a close number 2 for me. Just a good layout and good tanking map. Some flags are a bit far apart so you may end up only seeing 50% of the map per round, but it's not hard to venture out to other areas as infantry.

This post is for new players that have just discovered Forgotten Hope 2. This will give you an overview of the game as well as the most up-to-date status regarding FH2’s player base and development. I will try to update this post every 6 months so that anyone who has just discovered this great mod can look at this thread for any questions that they have. This thread will eventually disappear into the ether and might stay up for longer than FH2 is alive. That’s why there’s a date at the top to see when it was last updated.

Note; some of this information is on the website, in the FAQ section. But now it’s here too for you people who don’t click around before coming to the forums.

Forgotten Hope 2 (FH2) is a modification for the game Battlefield 2 (BF2). Its aim is to transform the game into a historically accurate and more realistic World War 2 scenario. The latest version of FH2 contains 45 maps, over 150 weapons and more than 300 vehicles.

Old SchoolFH2 is a modification for Battlefield 2, a game that was released in 2005 That means that BF2 is required to play this mod. Electronic Arts (who published BF2) has stopped creating this game and in June of 2014, they shut down online services for it.

BF2 went through several patches while it was available. The latest patch that you need to have is 1.5. This is the latest version that FH2 is compatible with. This is important, considering many hard-copies of BF2 are used and may not be the latest version.

FH2 uses a launcher to play the game. You need to download this launcher and then run it to allow it to download the latest version of FH2. The launcher automatically checks for updates to Forgotten Hope 2 and installs them when they become available.

New SchoolRadiosmersh has been kind enough to create an Unofficial FH2 Installer so that you can install FH2 without BF2.

This gives you the minimal files from BF2 that are required to play FH2.

The latest version of FH2 is 2.54.

Community Map Pack

NOTE: The CMP mini mod is not compatible with the current version of FH2 and the creators are working to update it and release a new version.

Many servers will mix the FH2 maps with a community made mini-mod known as the CMP. This mod contains maps and assets made by the community. In order to play on these servers you need the CMP mini-mod downloaded and installed.

You can find more information about the CMP here.This also uses an installer that also allows you to install other community made content such as texture packs and maps for tournaments.

Are There Still Players Online?

Yes! FH2 is still active. You can check how many players are currently online in the Gameserver section of the website.

FH2’s player-base is mostly European. This means that peak times are usually between 18:00 GMT and 23:00 GMT. Typically only one server will be active at any given time.

Peak times on weekdays can usually yield about 40-70 players.Peak times on weekends can usually yield about 80-100 players.

Outside of these times will typically have no active servers or one active server with 10-20 players. (if you’re lucky)

Servers

762

The most populated server is hosted by 762. Their website can be found here where you can also find their rules. The server is located in Germany and the players mainly speak English/ German.

They run 2 servers; 762#1 & 762#2.

762#2 runs all of the Forgotten Hope 2 maps in a randomly generated rotation.762#1 runs the same but in the past has typically mixed the FH2 maps with CMP maps. When CMP is released again, you’ll need the CMP mod downloaded and installed in order to play on this server.

CMP (Hardcore)

This server is also located in Germany afaik and is run by the same group of people who made the map-pack. It runs all FH2 maps in a randomly generated rotation. This server is rather new and in order to play on this server you will eventually need the CMP mod downloaded and installed.

World at War [WAW]

This server is located in America. Their website can be found here Players on this server mainly speak English.

This server used to host an event every Thursday night for American players to join and get a good ping. This event hasn’t gathered many players lately. This server hasn’t had any players in the past few months.

This server also mixes FH2 maps with the CMP maps.

TournamentsThere is still 1 active tournament that plays organized battles on a weekly basis at CMP GamingThe latest tournament started In December, 2018.

Is This Game Still Being Developed?

Yes! The Staff page is not completely up-to-date, but FH2 is still being developed by a handful of active Developers.

The last FH2 release was FH2.54 in October, 2018.The last News Update to show off upcoming content was in October, 2018 for the release.

What’s Being Worked On

The Devs are currently working on making gameplay and quality adjustments as well as adding content for FH2. The gameplay and quality adjustments are mainly in the form of continuing to squish bugs that crop up from time-to-time. There is also work being done to make the game run/ look better despite being created on a 10+ year old engine.

The Devs are also working on content in the form of new maps, vehicles and weapons. This content is mainly focused on expanding the Eastern Front content that was recently released with 2.5.

Anything and everything discussed and leaked on the forums is WIP and subject to change

Is There an Anticipated Release Date?

Nope. FH2 makes a policy like many other games to not have set release dates. The FH2 Devs work on the mod in their free-time. As such, work is slow and updates are not frequent. Sometimes, real-life can get in the way and unforeseen bugs can stop them from releasing a patch.

I was wondering about it while playing the CMP Battle of Britain earlier today. I'm wondering what the Community/ Devs/ Testers think about 'All-Vehicle' maps in FH2? Maps where there's no flags for infantry to cap, only vehicles to play as.

Most FH2 maps try to have something for everyone to do (infantry/tanks/planes) but sometimes history dictates that certain vehicles be removed. However, there are a lot of battles in history where the typical infantry just didn't play a role. Midway, BoB, Convoy attacks in the Mediterranean or Atlantic, Bombing runs over Europe etc...

FH1 had maps like Rheinuebung, Midway, the original BoB etc... but not everybody likes using vehicles. Playing with tanks and planes seems a bit more specialized in FH2 than it was in FH1. And with 100 player servers, 'All-Vehicle' maps can become very crowded very quickly. I wonder if an official 'All-Vehicle' map popped on the server, if a bunch of people would be unhappy and quit because they don't like vehicles.

I personally think that 'All-Vehicle' maps could have a place in FH2 if done right. But I wonder how everyone else feels. There's also a poll if you wanna vote

Hey guys, I'm looking for help in finding a good WW2 Flight Simulator. I haven't gotten into flight sims for a long time but I was looking to see if there was a game worth buying that could get me back.

More specifically, does anyone know of any ww2 flight sims that take place in the Pacific. Being able to take hold of Japanese Zeros American Wildcats etc...

I've been so glued to FH2 for the longest time, but I figured the people who play other games could give some suggestions. Let me know!

Matt Baker's Texture PackJust like the Willy’s texture http://fhpubforum.warumdarum.de/index.php?topic=19325.0, I’ve decided to extend the historical accuracy treatment to some of the other vehicles in FH2. This time I decided to compile some of the textures I’ve had lying around for a while and polish them off to put them in game. I'm releasing them now to share with you guys because I know a lot of people out there enjoy FH2 for its historical accuracy like I do

The vehicles I pick are usually really random and kind of whatever I feel like doing when I have free time. Right now I’ve reskined five more vehicles other than the Willys.

Again, I did a lot of research on this but I’m not a historian for a reason. So if anyone sees something that’s wrong or off, or if anyone has any suggestions or pictures of vehicles that actually fought in these battles, I can always change them up.

Again, all of these files are full reskins of the vehicles so no .dds compression issues are present.

I've been playing with all of these reskins in-game and in multiplayer for a while now. I've had no problems being kicked from the server or anything; except for the occasional fact that these new skins are sometimes better camouflaged than the original ones, so you might have trouble hunting the tanks down

Also, since the original FH2 textures are VERY well done, I decided to make sure I left them on at least one map so the devs original work is still in the mod.

List of what vehicles are on each map and some screens:UPDATE: 7/4 FW190Focke Wulf 190 A-8

Note that Totalize, Anctoville, Bastogne, Vossenack and Eppledorf all use their orignial textures to 1) Keep the devs original work in the mod and 2) Bastogne and Eppledorf use the same 'texture suffix' so they have to keep the same textures on both maps either way.

Gold beach- 61st Recon Unit, HeadquartersVillers Bocage- 7th Armored Division, Recon Unit, "Calamity Jane II"*note For this one I couldn't find any record of Stuart Recce vehicles that fought at Viller's bocage. But I did find photos of an M3A3 from the 7th Armored Recce unit that fought there. So I made the markings after those.Note: Omaha Beach only map to use M5A1 Stuart with original FH2 texture.

Was just playing some sidi rezegh when I noticed that I couldn't create a squad. Now sometimes squad bugs happen and idk what causes them or exactly what they are. I know that no new squads can be created and I don't think you can join any existing squads.

This time tho there were 2 squads, Able and Charlie, (Baker squad must've been started and disbanded at the beginning of the round).

After a while I hoped out of Able (that I started in) and tried to create a 3rd squad. But kept getting the message "Charlie squad already exists"

It seems it wouldn't let me create a 3rd squad because Charlie was already the 3rd squad so nobody after that could create a squad on the team. Idk if this is what happens with the 'squad bug' that we all know happens from time to time. But I've never seen it before and I was wondering if maybe it was a result of the 'name change' that occurred for the squads after 2.46.

If you had every weapon in FH2 available to you, what would be your ultimate kit for each scenario?

So you can grab anything, MG42 and some potato mashers, silenced Sten with Molotov Cocktails, a shotgun and some AP mines, everything is up for grabs. Let’s say you wanna clean out a series of trenches or houses, or you wanna sneak through the bocage and hunt down those tanks that have been pestering you, what’s the greatest kit you could assemble for that purpose and why?

So the scenarios can be kind of vague (I just started with some basic FH2 kits and what I think their ultimate incarnations would be ) and if you want to create map specific kits you can do that too. I wanted this to be really open and see what everyone’s favorite weapons are, what they play well with and how they would play with each given kit.

Now this can’t be too open ended (making a kit with an mg42 and an mg 34 and 12 Bomba a Manos with a mortar etc…) so I put in a few basic rules to follow by and create your own kit. Feel free to use my templates and create your own version of my kits as well as your own ideas for kits. You can even bend the rules for the kits a bit because this is totally fictional after all

So for the rules: You get a total of 7 weapon slots in your inventory. The first slot has to be a melee weapon, the second has to be a sidearm, the third your main weapon, the fourth is for grenades, the fifth and six are for special weapons etc… and you can add a seventh slot with binoculars or an ammo box if you give up your 5th or 6th weapon slot. You’ll see what I mean.

This one I got a little carried away on it started out as a compilation of my favorite weapons in FH2 but ended up as sort of a 'thank you' to the Devs and all the hard work they've put in to give us this mod

Most of the article was pretty unsurprising to me except number 2. Up until this point if someone had asked me what causes a plane to lift into the air on takeoff I'd have described the Bernoulli principle; the idea that the faster air moving on top of the wing causes a low pressure system above and a high pressure system below, causing the plane to lift off the ground.

This principle is what I've been taught all my life and seemed like a very simple and reasonable explanation for why planes fly. I never questioned it until I read some of the articles that were linked.

These articles basically state otherwise; that the Bernoulli principle is not a good description for the cause of lift, and instead, newton's third law of motion (for every action there's a equal and opposite reaction) is more of a factor. The downwash of air (caused by the angle of attack of the wing) and the deflection of that air puts an equal and opposite upwards force on the wing, causing the plane to lift.

Ik a lot of the people on these forums are very into science and math and a bit more intellectual than I to speak on matters of physics and engineering that's why I wanted to know what you guys think.

I can't be the only one that unquestioningly subscribed to the idea that Bernoulli's principle was the soul cause of lift I'm wondering if it's a common misconception that's taught in other parts of the world as well. It's what me and many other people are taught at a very young age (probably because of the simplicity of the explanation) and since I learned it at a young age I never questioned it.

I could be totally ignorant but I was pretty surprised to think about lift in a more complex and scientific way.

I decided to do a full reskin of the Willys Jeep for FH2 with new and historically correct markings for each map. I did it for myself to use in my own FH2 but I'm putting it up for download in case anyone else feels like using these skins for themselves.

The current FH2 Willys Jeep texture has a few historical inaccuracies and this pack aims to fix those as well as give diversity by having a different texture on each map through the texture suffixes. The files obviously make the FH2 file size larger so if you feel like just replacing one texture or a few you can do that too.

I did a lot of research on this but I'm far from perfect and I don't have access to all the research that's out there, so if anyone notices any historical inaccuracies/something that seems wrong or off, feel free to let me know.

I tried to diversify the markings to show the variety with which the Willys was marked in real life. There are a few markings that are based off of photos from the actual battle but most are just recreated by following the markings guidelines these armies used in WW2 and matching them with the divisions being used on each map.

Note that this is a full vehicle reskin, so there's no .dds compression issues. I did my best on the reskin but any helpful critique is always welcome.

I haven't fully tested these on a server yet but I have other skins using the same texture suffix format and I've never been kicked before. Let me know of any problems anyone has.

Seige of Girarabub is only map to use a Willys Jeep that I left with an original FH2 texture. The reason behind it is because I couldn't find any record of Willys markings from that time period. In March of 1941 I believe there were mainly Bantams in use in North Africa if any type of Willys at all.

The intructions for how to install should be in the read me file. The basic idea is to navigate to the Willys texture files in their respective armies folder and replace them with the new ones.

NOTE: might want to save the original FH2 textures into a different folder if you don't want to lose them as these new ones will replace them.

Yes the changes between each vehicle are small but I enjoy diversity and the little bits of historical accuracy that make FH2 the best WW2 game out there

Hope you guys enjoy it feedback's appreciated, especially on the historical aspect.

There have been a lot of suggestions in the past, and some recent threads that have started out as/eventually turned into a discussion about changing the commander role in FH2. The reason I made a new thread on this topic is not for it to be so much of a suggestion, but more of a discourse about the commander in FH2. It seems to be at the heart of a lot of suggestions and discussions on FH2s gameplay and imo resolving the issue of the commander will not only help FH2 but other gameplay issues that might arise from it.

This thread is about outlining a discussion amongst the devs and forum users as to what to do with the commander role; more specifically how can we make the role of the commander a more fun and useful position in FH2? In it I’ll outline how I think we should question the commander role while also giving my own ideas for the commander in FH2. What I’m looking for is an honest discussion about how people feel the commander should be played. Outline your own ideas as I’m doing here, create your own huge walls of text that can be read and assessed by people, or build upon someone else’s ideas so we can get properly formulated suggestions. All I ask is that we keep it simple. Let’s suggest things we know are possible or are at least within the realm of possibility of what can be done by this engine. (obviously no “canz we h@ve commander NUKZ!?!” suggestions) What I hope is that this discussion will result in ideas being jogged loose and built upon so in the end we have a well defined gameplay design for the commander in FH2, one that the devs can hopefully implement in the future; or not.

However, before we can discuss how to make the commander better, we first have to ask if it’s worth it. Do we keep the commander and expand on it (improve it, make it more important/want to be played); or would it help FH2s game design better to simply remove the commander altogether and put logistics/ support in the hands of the players (kind of as we have now)?

(Imo, I’d like to see the commander position kept in FH2 and made better, so what I discuss from here on is assuming the Commander position to be in FH2.)

Right now I would say the commander is dead skin, just leftover from FH2s inception. It had a lot of potential, but pumping out models and other gameplay changes eventually got in the way and its game design fell to the wayside. I think the commander has a lot of potential currently, and a lot of great gameplay dynamics can arise from a well designed commander position.

“Commander should coordinate the team and give guidance to the individual squads, monitors the overall situation and decides the strategy.” That’s a quote from PR’s guide about what their commander role is. PR Guide and overview on how their commander is set up: http://www.realitymod.com/manual/pr_manual.pdf

Imo the PR commander is a good place to start, it’s well developed and works well for THEIR gameplay. Seeing what it does right and wrong can help us make FH2s commander position even better.

The commander should realistically coordinate the team and decide strategy but the world of FH is very different from the world of PR. People don’t constantly communicate with one another over VOIP or Mumble, people in FH want to do their own thing, that’s what FH is geared toward. Give the players fun assets to use, and if used correctly, they can give their team the upper hand to win the battle. Because of this I see the commander almost as another class, a class with very powerful assets that have a very direct and immediate influence on the battle. This class’ assets should be fun to use and should vary by map and team (as every other class does)

The commander should be a supporter on the battlefield, he should be able to take requests from players and use them while also being able to make decisions on his own. The commander shouldn’t be so influential that he’s overpowered on the battlefield; being able to annihilate the enemy team with one fail swoop, and he also shouldn’t be so influential in case he’s misused on the battlefield; for example, if nobody goes commander that round it won’t make the game unplayable for the other 32 players. This also means that if someone who is a smacktard goes commander he can be easily removed by his teammates so as not to hinder the gameplay of the other 31 people on the team.

The perfect commander, what we’re looking to discuss and form here, is a role on the battlefield that if used properly can give his team an upperhand in the battle. Through hard work and practiced use of his tools he can shift the battle in favor of his team and ultimately win them the round.

Currently this is possible in FH2 to SOME extent (this is why the commander has so much potential imo). Right now well timed and well placed artillery barrages (one of the commander’s most powerful assets) can demolish an enemy and help his team move onto and take a flag that was being stalemated for the whole round. To some extent supplies, dropped on vehicle locations, can be used to give those tanks and heavy assets the added ‘specialized’ rounds to give them the upperhand in a tank fight, or the ability to sit and repair/heal themselves without having to get out, meaning they can engage the enemy while regenerating their health (not very realistic but not the point).

One of the biggest complaints about the commander now is how boring it is to play. I’d like to see some discussion as to WHY exactly this is but I feel the biggest reasons are;

a) not enough to do, the commander only really has arty and supplies at his disposal right now (2 buttons w/ a lot of time in between use = not that much fun imo) The commander should always have something to do, or at least always have something fun to play with.

b) no ability to see his effects on the battle (also not being able to see the battle.) Imo the core of our reasoning for playing BF2 is the idea that we get to see these battles being played out while also seeing that we’re having an effect on them. Sitting in a stationary place and clicking buttons, hoping they do something is a big turn off for people imo.

At its heart I see the commander as a support role; and right now many of the support roles in FH2 don’t have a lot to do but they’re still A LOT of fun to play. People play as arty gunners where you sit in a seat and line up numbers, or as a recon plane where you fly around with nothing to shoot at. But these roles also have you actively DOING something and have you actively SEEING how you’re affecting the battle. In arty I have a ‘God’s eye view’ where I can see that my rounds are landing and killing people. In the recon plane I’m flying, flying is inherently a fun activity for most people, and you can see all the people you’re spotting on the ground with the ‘UAV radar,’ (not realistic but it’s a very useful tool from a gameplay standpoint).

These support roles are what I feel the Commander should be modeled after. Give him the ability to do MANY things, and give him the ability to see the impact of those things on the battlefield.

Imo the commander has 3 main assets; arty/supply/recon (and he should utilize all of these in conjunction with coordinating his team to get their full potential)

Quote

Right now in FH2 there are a lot of player controlled support roles: player controlled arty, recon planes, ammo trucks etc… I want to try and keep the idea of player controlled support roles in CONJUNCTION with commander support roles. Player controlled support roles are fun and loved by many and I don’t want to see them go. However, it might prove to be impossible to see them work with commander support roles and one or the other might ultimately have to be taken out, which is why I raised the question of if it’s worth it to keep the commander in.

Arty (This includes big arty tasks, softening up enemy positions with very indirect fire)Variations have been suggested a million times, and many of them have some great ideas that could stand alone and make the commander position fun to play.

I feel like the real question here is what the hell is the difference or significant impact of having 2 types of arty systems? Right now we have player controlled arty which is fun and LOVED by many people. It’s well designed so as to take some skill to use well. It also incorporates teamwork into FH on a scale I’ve never seen before. A good spotter coupled with a good gunner can ruin my day defending a flag. This is a great thing and is why I think player controlled arty should be kept in FH2 and not sacrificed for the commander. Right now the only advantage is that Commander arty is used to soften up an objective, which I think is great. Let loose a barrage on a flag and many of its defenses (AT guns, machine guns, people) are out of commission and disorganized for a minute or two, allowing your team to advance. But how do we define the role of commander arty and how is it different from player controlled arty?

I guess my one suggestion would be to put ONLY the big guns in the hands of the commander. 25 pders, leFH 18s, 105 Howitzers etc.. giving ONLY the mortars and mobile arty to the player controlled arty. You want a big barrage to soften up a target? Call on the big batteries, but they’re only available every few minutes or so as the commander arty is now. And if you want to get rid of that pesky camping tank or that one 6pder someone moved to the flank that’s eating up your PzerIIIs? call it out with binoculars and have the mortar crew put some accurate fire on its location instead of wasting a ‘one time’ barrage.

Supply (incorporates big supply tasks, reinforcing a whole squad or team. Leaving things like driving ammo trucks to tanks to be reserved for the player)Supply asset is a tricky one imo. Right now supply doesn’t do much of anything in FH2. As an infantryman I’ve only once or twice had to go and find more clips for my rifle after using them all up. The only times I’ve EVER seeked out an ammo box (or wish I had one) is:

1) I need more special shells for my tank, or more HE ‘cause I’ve been spamming it into the enemy flag for 10 min and I’m fresh out

2) I just used up all of my PIATs/Zooks/satchels/AT weapons etc… and I need some more.

Overall, it’s not a very common thing to need supply drops every few min on an FH2 battlefield.So how can this become an asset that is as important as or almost as important as arty on the battlefield?I’m thinking in terms of bigger things. Maybe the commander can choose to give people reinforcements of the sort. Spawn crew served weapons (mortars, deployed guns etc..) or even go so far as to spawn certain vehicles in certain situations with limits. Can even go so far as to create limited spawn points. My one idea would be making the command vehicle itself a spawn point. This supply idea can be built upon and I’ll elaborate on it more later.

Recon (i.e. something bigger than just spotting people with binos for the team)Recon is imo already a very fun thing in FH. I remember flying the scout plane around on Lebiesy and seeing the impact it had on my team. I’m not sure if it was just an incompetent Brit team on the other side but I like to think it was the fact that my guys had a pretty much constant view of the enemy’s location on their map. They we’re never surprised to see 10 guys rushing in from their right because I uncovered those guys sneaking on their flank 2 minutes beforehand. In the end it was a resounding victory.

This example shows the power of the recon plane and how it can be a huge asset for the commander that can affect the battle in a significant way. I would propose giving the “UAV” ability back to the commander in the form of a recon plane (which has been suggested before) in general the recon plane would fly in a circle like the UAV over an area of the commanders choosing and have the ‘radar’ show enemy positions on the minimap for the team to see. This would be like the arty in that it could only be used every so often. One immediate problem that I heard was that apparently only ONE model can be used for the recon plane for both teams, meaning a team specific recon planes would be out and would break immersion. I guess the easiest work around to this would be to just make the ‘UAV’ not visible to people on the ground, but the commander still gets the ‘radar’ abilities.

This also raises the same question that the arty did in that we already have player controlled recon planes. How do we differentiate these recon planes from the commanders recon abilities? My suggestion would be to take away the recon plane from the player and just give it to the commander instead. That would mean that you as a player couldn’t just hop into a recon plane whenever you felt but instead would have to go as a commander to do so. This has the disadvantage of taking it away from people who like to recon for their team every few rounds whenever they feel like it. But I think it gives the advantage of giving players more incentive to play as the commander, which is lacking almost completely right now. Now even if players just want to go commander and recon they’re still helping the team out but can also do more with arty and supplies at their disposal as well.

Another idea would be to give the commander the ability to view the recon plane. As in, if the commander is in his seat he can click to view the ‘underneath’ view of the recon plane even if someone else is flying it. He can have the ability to spot his own arty from there and use it to direct troops better. Or maybe, is there some possible work around where the commander could ‘call in’ a recon plane? Use his binos to spot the place he wants to recon and have something fly in off map that you could man. I’m thinking kind of like the bomber kit in FH1 where you’d call it in and the plane would fly a set path, you’d then man the plane and drop bombs manually. Iirc I heard it wasn’t exactly possible in BF2 tho. This area of the commander assets can be expanded upon heavily.

In terms of making the commander a fun role to play in, aside from the assets, the commander should have the ability to move around. He should be able to be with his team only slightly behind the front lines and see his work take effect. You can see in this PR video how dbzao is at the forefront of the attack, watching as his team takes objectives and helps to build/ communicate with them.

This aspect of being able to move around and be with the team alone makes the commander so much more fun to play. He has the choice to sit in the safety of his chair at the base but if he wants to venture out he can do so with the command trucks that are already in game. They work like they do now, the commander can command from inside his tent or inside the command truck and those are the only two places he has access to his map.

I also believe it could be a good idea to make the commanders truck a spawn point for the whole team. The only other spawn point aside from forward spawns at flags and SL spawns. This has the advantage of; if the commander isn’t using it at all or improperly it doesn’t affect gameplay. BUT if the commander uses it correctly and with some skill, it can become an enemy team’s nightmare, giving them another separate objective to take out. Essentially it’s like the spawnable Halftrack on Cobra (don’t know if it has been removed or not) but instead of having some smaktard drive it around (which has no real negative effect on gameplay currently) it will be a commander. (and again even if the commander is himself a smacktard it doesn’t effect gameplay and at least you have the ability to never let him drive it again by starting a mutiny against him.) This is under the assumption that the commander vehicle is locked to only the commander (possible? you could make it locked to a kit and have the commander kit only able to enter it, commander kit being only different from SL kit in terms of coding.)

The way I’m thinking of it’s ideal use now is on a map like El Alamein, the Brits are having a hard time capping the Ridge, anyone trying to move across the open desert is getting shelled by German tanks and no SL are smart enough or good enough to go and create a spawn point for their team at the base of the hill. So the commander steps in and decides this flag is the team’s number one priority and needs to be taken. He now, being the only one that can drive the command car, has to actively fight his way to a good spawn location where he can sit and defend his car as his team now has one new cohesive spawn point with which to attack this flag. It works for FH gameplay because it gives the team the OPTION of whether to spawn there or not, the commander isn’t useless by just giving his team a move marker and having no one follow it; he’s creating a new asset for his team that he deems useful and hoping his team will utilize that asset to their advantage. It’s a lot like a SL sitting in a building and hiding for his squad to rush in and overwhelm the flag, only it’s like a SL for the whole team which is what the commander should be (in a sense.) Not all maps can possibly have this commander spawn vehicle asset for the commander (inf maps) which is why I think he should also get different types of “supply” abilities as well, for those maps. I believe it’s possible to give commander certain things on certain maps; just like having mortars for arty on one map but large arty on another.

Imo the commander should be thought about on a map by map basis to better see what assets a team could use on those maps and how to balance them between both teams while keeping with historical accuracy.

I’d love to know the community’s feel about the commander in FH2. If you agree or disagree with me; if you think it’s stupid to try and fix the commander or not; if you think the commander is awesome as is and doesn’t need any changing. I’d also love to see some more suggestions. How should the commander’s assets work? What would make YOU want to play commander? I hope this thread can start a good discussion; maybe outline a plan to make the commander something as fun as mortars or riflemen in FH2. Or, after some discussion, realize that the commander is useless in FH2 and have the devs remove it completely so as not to confuse new players and keep the mod ‘polished.’

Alright so I found the time to start on another project to hone my modeling skills, this time a bit more challenging. I decided to model the Italian Carcano Cavalry Carbine (the one with the folding bayonet). I wanted a challenging model where I could practice making more than basic shapes and learn to surface model with a lot of detail. I also wanted to organize my workflow and do a high poly that could be baked into a low poly that would eventually be UVed and skinned.

I've been working on this for a while now and the high poly isn't done but I figured it was at a point where I could get some basic feedback on it; is the shape right, what have I screwed up, did I go about modeling the wrong way etc... Hopefully the pictures are good enough to where some experienced modelers on this forum could give me some specific or technical feedback. Hopefully you guys enjoy it and constructive criticism is always welcome.

To start I went about finding a ton of reference pictures on the net and they all seemed to have various little differences between each gun that I've found; but this is the main reference I've been working with:

and here's what I've come up with: The high poly with turbo smooth applied (not correctly yet)

Hey guys, I just wanted to show some of my progress I'm making on a map. I decided I was gonna try my hand at mapping and I figured it'd probably be easiest (for me) to recreate an old map from FH1. So after some looking I decided to try and remake Cretan Village! Using a nice little tool, I was able to transfer the heightmap of the actual map right into the BF2 editor. And from there I painted the terrain with the minimap from the old map. And after a couple weeks of work and learning my way around here's what I've got.

I'll start with a nice overlooking view of the village of Pavlos.

Pavlos from the other side of town.

The main square, and where most of the fighting will probably take place.

Scenic shot of the tight streets.

The classic plane wreck we all probably remember.

The road leading to Pavlos.

Another shot showing off the 2 Pounder.

The guardpost flag.

The ruins atop the hill (which is luckily the like exact same model as from the original).

The german spawn of Zaros.

The British/Australian/New Zealand spawn.

A closer look.

And the command tent (the only place with any detail right now.)

As i said, the map doesn't have any details right now, just the over growth, undergrowth, and main building layouts. But let me know what you guys think. I can't remember how popular Cretan Village was, but I do remember I liked it. And also let me know your thoughts on whether or not I should make it more like the original.

Hey guys, for awhile now (behind the scenes) I've been putting some time into making a sort of FH2 mod for Arma 2. Actually first I should clarify, this is NOT a mod I plan on distributing. This is simply a mod i started experimenting with and kind of got carried away. Also, if for any reason the Devs want me to stop, I understand. I had been working on it with the thought process of "If its for private use and not being redistributed its okay". Alot of my other BF2 modding endevours, I had used content from multiple mods with the authors saying if its for private use its okay. I thought that would probably apply here, but if I've over stepped any bounds I'll gladly stop.

Anyway, I had been playing alot of Arma 2 and Invasion 1944 (mod for A2) and got a little bored with Invasion 1944's 2 maps and lack of diversity. So I thought hey, how cool would it be to have everything that FH2 has but with the mission customizability of A2 and the extra singleplayer fun that it brings. So I just said why not and transfered my first model from FH2 to Arma 2. After a bumpy start, I've managed to convert several weapons, player models, and vehicles. But my pride and joy is that I got my first terrain working in A2 and its FH2's El Alamein! So I decided, in my giddyness, to just show it to some of you guys and see what you think!

The view from Kidney ridge.

And the view from inside the Crusader MK1 Late, looking at Kidney ridge.

So let me know what you guys think and if any DEVs can please confirm if this is okay, that'd be great.

P.S. I didnt know if this should go in modding or not, I thought it was more off topic of BF2 modding then it was with FH2 modding